Milwaukee Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio, whose day job involves running an investment firm, was speaking at an industry conference in New York when asked how a team’s personnel decisions are made when he and the general manager have differing views.

“I said, ‘If you kept a scorecard of what David (Stearns) wanted to do (last) winter and what I wanted to do, and I decided for any number of reasons we’re just going to do everything he wants to do, the scorecard is better with his decisions than mine,’” Attanasio recalled.

Nevertheless, Attanasio admitted it has been difficult to ignore the big seasons of Jean Segura and Khris Davis, traded by the Brewers to Arizona and Oakland, respectively, shortly before spring training began. Segura, who had a .615 OPS over his final two seasons with the Brewers, entered Saturday with a .848 OPS, 38 doubles, six triples, 17 home runs and 192 hits, most in the National League.

Davis, who led the Brewers with 27 home runs last season, has slugged 40 for the Athletics while driving in 99 runs and compiling an .832 OPS.

This is why you must take the long view of trades during a rebuilding process. Had the Brewers been in contending mode for 2016, they would not have traded Davis and Segura. But they were several months into an organizational reboot when they made those moves to acquire building blocks for the future.

The Brewers picked up veteran infielder Aaron Hill, since flipped to Boston, and starting pitcher Chase Anderson (9-11, 4.36) from Arizona in the Segura trade, but the key acquisition was infield prospect Isan Diaz, just 19 at the time. Diaz was at Miller Park on Saturday to pick up the organization’s 2016 minor-league player of the year award after a big finish at Class A Wisconsin, where he bopped 20 home runs with 75 RBI, 72 walks, 134 hits, a .358 on-base percentage and .469 slugging percentage.

“The goal of all trades is for both sides to have a positive outcome,” Stearns said. “We are most interested in the players we’ve added to the organization and helping them reach their potential. Isan has been outstanding. He has been as advertised. We believe he’ll continue to take steps forward. He has the talent and work ethic to do so.”

Because the Brewers wanted to move Ryan Braun back to left field and install young slugger Domingo Santana in right this season, Davis became an extraneous player, prodigious power or not. But they weren’t going to give him away.

Realizing they’d need a catcher for the future if they traded Jonathan Lucroy – which they did on Aug. 1 to Texas – the Brewers acquired Jacob Nottingham, a strapping physical specimen (6-foot-2, 230) with considerable offensive upside, as well as pitching prospect Bubba Derby. Pushed to Class AA Biloxi at age 21, Nottingham struggled for the most part (.641 OPS, 11 HR, 37 RBI, 138 strikeouts) and will have to repeat that level next year.

Should the Brewers get Nottingham to the big leagues as their No. 1 catcher at age 23 or 24, they will be in business. If he can’t stay behind the plate, his value will decrease and lead to a change in plans.

“Jake has improved defensively to the point where our catching instructors and managers throughout our minor-league system firmly believe he’s going to catch in the big leagues," Stearns said. "He answered those questions for us and showed a great deal of pride in improving his defensive game.”

As for taking the long view in such deals, Stearns said, “We’re all extremely competitive people; that’s why we get into this game and stay attached to the game. Competitive people want to see results, and we’re no different. At the same time, it’s my job to do everything I can to help us win a World Series. That’s Mark’s goal; that’s my goal; that’s the entire organization’s goal.

“To win a World Series and stay consistently competitive in this market, we made the determination that we needed a long-term strategy. That’s what we have tried to implement. Whenever you do that, you have to stay patient and you have to stay disciplined with that approach.

“There are going to be times when you trade a player and he has a good year, and that’s OK. These are challenging decisions but we make them with a great deal of confidence. If we continue to follow this approach, we believe we’re going to amass the critical amount of talent at the major-league level that’s going to allow us to compete consistently.”

Stearns spent much of his first year acquiring players just getting their pro careers started. The goal was to make the Brewers a competitive team for years to come and not break through only briefly before stepping back again.

So, what are the chances that when the Brewers are good again that it will last a while, rather than sliding again as they did after the 2011 National League Championship Series season?

“In 2012, when we traded Zack Greinke (to the Los Angeles Angels in late July), we didn’t get eliminated until Sept. 26,” Attanasio said. “There were various things in 2013, and in 2014 we were in first place for 150 days.

“That 2014 team might have made it over the top if we made one more trade at the trade deadline. Or we might have made one more trade at the deadline and been further back. I think we gave it our best shot. I look at teams like the Pirates where they have stayed consistently a contender. If you build from the bottom up, that’s what you get.”

Beyond needing a long-term vision in rebuilding the Brewers, Stearns and manager Craig Counsell wanted to put a team on the field in 2016 that would not be a laughingstock. The preseason chatter about tanking from national pundits was sheer nonsense, if you knew anything about the competitive natures of Attanasio, Stearns and Counsell.

Accordingly, moves also were made for the short term, such as acquiring infielder Jonathan Villar, first baseman Chris Carter and centerfielder Keon Broxton, whose in-season improvement was remarkable to watch before a broken wrist ended his season prematurely.

“It has to be evaluated not only in terms of trades, but the other things David does,” Attanasio said. “One of our best moves this year was getting Junior Guerra (on a waiver claim in early November), and that was the very first thing he did. There are a lot of different ways to build a team, and David is using every one of them.”

Another short-term focus for Attanasio was seeing how Stearns, 31, and Counsell, 46, would work together. When Stearns was named GM just over a year ago, Counsell already was in place with a three-year deal after replacing fired manager Ron Roenicke at the beginning of May 2015.

Most new GMs bring in their own managers, either immediately or shortly down the road, but Attanasio told Stearns he should be able to work with Counsell, a Milwaukee native with a unique and deep understanding of the organization’s importance to the city.

“You wanted to see him and Craig work together as well as they’re working,” Attanasio said. “You can’t take two guys and say, ‘Work together.’ There has to be the chemistry there. They have the chemistry.”

In fact, the Stearns-Counsell partnership has proceeded so nicely that Attanasio hinted the manager’s contract would be extended after this season beyond 2017.

“Once the season is over, David is going to address a number of things and that’s obviously on the list,” Attanasio said.

So, the work continues. The club’s decision makers will continue to look to the horizon while also trying to put a representative club on the field in the interim. It is not an easy balancing act.

“I told David for everything he’s done, ‘Still no gray hair,’” Attanasio said with a laugh. “He told me he’s aging on the inside. He’s not aging on the outside. I think it’s gone very well.”